Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Centers

Directions:Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or line 12 wells in a cupcake pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter, zest and sugar. Add the lemon juice and the eggs. Beat to combine. The mixture may look a little curdled but that is okay. Mix in the buttermilk. Continue to mix and slowly add in the flour. Beat the batter an additional 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Pour an even amount into each cupcake well, filling about 3/4 of the way. Place a whole strawberry, point side down in the middle of each cupcake. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted on the outside of the strawberry comes out clean. Cool in pan briefly, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Ice*.

Icing suggestion: make a basic buttercream and substitute lemon juice for any liquid and add some lemon zest. I actually made a cream cheese icing: 8 0z cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and some lemon zest.

My thoughts:

A reader, Jenn, wrote to me yesterday wanting to know if I had any suggestions or a recipe for a lemon cupcake with a strawberry inside. I had never done that before, but I gave her some suggestions and decided to try it out for myself. This might be my new favorite cupcake for Spring, lots of tangy lemon and a juicy, sweet strawberry sunk in the middle. I also made a few plain and they were excellent as well, but if you have access to good strawberries, use them! They are a great and tasty surprise.

Update: check out Jenn's post about the cupcakes she made using this recipe.

No, the tops didn't explode. I left out baking soda/powder and just really mixed the batter until fluffy so they didn't rise too much. I also didn't cover the top of the strawberry with batter, the batter just went up to their "shoulders".

That looks delicious! Lemon and strawberries are my absolute favorite. Your recipe gave me a great idea...I have a family recipe for strawberry cake made with fresh strawberry puree. I normally use a fresh strawberry frosting but I think I'll try a lemon frosting instead!!

I always love looking at your blog and have made several recipes. I just made these lemon strawberry cupcakes for a picnic and they were perfect! I had no time to make frosting, so I just plopped a bit of batter on top of the strawberries (otherwise they sink in the cake a bit) and even though the finished cupcakes did still have sunken tops, they tasted so good and are perfect without frosting too. What a sweet and great idea!

I baked these and loved their bright flavor! I frosted them with a white chocolate/cream cheese frosting (from your recipe, but substituting white chips for the chocolate) and was pleased with the flavor combo :) But I was wondering: how much leavening would you put in, if you were to put in some? I prefer the fluffier texture, and since I made them sans strawberries, no danger of exploding tops... Your thoughts?

I made these this weekend and they were delicious. My strawberries were so big I had to cut them in half. I didn't have cream cheese for the frosting but I DID have some top shelf margarita mix. A few drops of that, powdered sugar, and fresh lemon juice made a lovely glaze. Thanks!

I made these for a bridal shower I was hosting and they got rave reviews and were so so yummy! I put a pink fondant flower over the top as well and they were so cute..pics on my blog if your interested!

I love these cupcakes!They are officially my all time favorite & very yummy!!! My sister & I made about 60 with the lemon cheese cream frosting, for a baby shower. They were so popular that people came in for seconds and some sneaked of with 3rds.

I made these for a little kid's birthday party this past weekend (mom needed extra dessert) and they were a huge hit! My husband, who doesn't like cake normally, said I could make these any time! Thanks, Rachel! :)

Hi, the cupcake looks great!I want to make these too. But most of our local strawberry are sour. Do u think it's good idea if I mix small amount of sugar to the strawberries before put them in the batter?Please adviceThanks a lot!